Olens Launches “Not Buying It” Campaign

I was honored today to speak briefly at a press conference organized by Attorney General Sam Olens. Olens was kicking of the “Georgia’s Not Buying It” campaign to fight underage sex trafficking and urge men not to buy sex from girls.

Also speaking at the press conference were GBI Director Vernon Keenan, US Attorneys Sally Quillian Yates, Ed Tarver, and Michael Moore, APD Chief George Turner, Senator Renee Unterman, Representative Ed Lindsey, and broadcaster Ernie Johnson. Here are a couple of photos I took during the presser.

The “Not Buying It” campaign will feature a number of things including a PSA featuring Johnson, Harry Douglas of the Falcons, Devin Harris of the Hawks, and Tim Hudson of the Braves.

Olens likened underage sex trafficking, in which children and bought and sold for sex through the use of force, to modern-day slavery. It is a problem throughout Georgia, in both urban areas and in small towns and rural areas, he said.

The new campaign is a public-private partnership between Olens’ office, law enforcement, nonprofit advocates Street Grace and youthSpark, and the Governor’s Office of Children and Families.

For more information about the campaign and to take the pledge to fight underage sex trafficking visit the website.

Indeed, the “pledge” seemed askew (though I am not knocking the entire effort). Not entirely sure what “rocks of the Republic” they are trying to target, as a group, with it, but I have to look askance on any man whose attitude is “hey, I would bang that 13 year old, but my companeros say it isn’t cool, so I guess I won’t.”

Especially as far as his ability to be part of self-governance, but hey, we are sliding to empire anyway.

Personally, I would prefer a more robust “when we catch you we are going to cut your balls off” message. But one does what one can with the new Georgian populace.

This is probably a fairly unpopular opinion, and I realize there’s little chance of it happening, but you know what would help put a stop to underage prostitution? Legalization / regulation. Let’s face it… all those signs you see on I-75 when heading to Florida for one spa or another with “Truck Parking” and pictures of a female aren’t just for a relaxing massage. Prostitution has been referred to as the oldest profession in the world. Anyone who thinks it can be stopped by outlawing it is only kidding themselves. Wouldn’t it be better to perhaps legalize it and require regular health checkups by those in the business? Give customers a legal option to pay for the services they want and they’ll most likely stay away from the illegal ones, no?

The first stop for the Georgia Not Buying It should be the University of Georgia faculty lounge and the Board of Regents offices. In the past year, several University System employees, including professors have been arrested for soliciting prostitution.

A German language UGA professor was arrested for being a male transvestite prostitute in June. Instead of worrying about gun owners on campus, maybe they should check out their own employees.

Since governments have made me hate them to the bottom of my soul, many are simply criminal regimes, and they just can’t stop harassing me, the only thing I think about with regards to them these days is how I can neutralize them and that they should try to mind their own damn business. Is there much of anything that they think they should not be involved in?

Governments need to do what they can to protect children but they need to stay out of the business of adults. Why is it that supposed Americans can’t get enough of trying to tell other people what to do? Prostitution should not be illegal. That’s ridiculous. Of course, any type of coercion, harm to women, or whatever, should be illegal, but certainly not anything that two consenting adults want to do in private between themselves.

As far as health problems go, I would bet my life that all the fat people in Georgia eating potato chips are a much, much larger health problem than any prostitution would ever be. If we want our governments to start “requiring” regular checkups and preventative health care, let’s start with them.

The policing problems tend to be just as difficult for trafficked women and children in countires which prostitution is legal, despite best efforts.

The UK is seeing this problem as well, Prostitution is legal, but as it is, there is little money to investigate and stop the trafficking of women held against their wills, mostly from Eastern Europe.

The problem in the Netherlands was linked above.

Slavery exists in other industries as well, even in the U.S., but this form is especially chilling and horrible.

The libertarian argument is people should be free to do what they want with their own bodies. I do get that and, generally, I agree. But the libertarian argument has not seemed to work on this issue when it is tried as there is still a huge trafficking in sexual slaves everwhere it has been tried.

I was not suggesting that legalizing prostitution would have any effect on trafficking or child sex problems, one way or another. I was simply saying that it should not be illegal. I would think that would be the “libertarian argument”.

I will say that if governments spent less time trying to control what adults do, they would have much more time, money, and other resources to do useful things. But they don’t seem to be capable of minding their own business generally. This country seems to be headed the opposite way to the extreme.

And I personally can’t give these criminal governments any fair, balanced consideration any longer. I don’t care what they are doing, I am against them. They can’t stop harassing me so my goal is to keep them broke and dysfunctional. They are less able to commit crimes that way. They’ve shown their hands and what they are really about.

It’s not my fault that they are criminal regimes and I will not give them a pass on it. The criminal regimes (actually, their un-American, stupid employees) run continual, lying, fear-mongering propaganda campaigns that are heavily dependent on name calling and labeling the people they hate. They want to convince everyone just how much we “need” them, how they are “protecting” us, and that governments should be huge and expensive. So F them, they are called what they are.

David, there was a great documentary I saw a couple of months ago at a screening at the Woodruff Arts Center. One of the sponsors was GAIN (Georgia Asylum and Immigration Network – http://www.georgiaasylum.org). While I’m not crazy about everything GAIN does, one of the issues I support them in is their fight against child trafficking. The documentary focused on several types of slavery happening around the world. In the U.S., it focused on a runaway teen who, with a friend, ended up being forced into prostitution at about 14.